Standard Fluval Aquarium. What Can I Achieve?

[chipsncheese]

Hi

I've had a fluval 200 (55G) tank which comes out of the box with a fluval 205 filter and 2x30W light capability. I have bought quite a few plants with various degrees of successful, stem plants seem to grow quite well and swords too. I can't get any java moss to grow and i've battled nearly all type of algae, I've just won the battle with the blue/green stuff after taking the tank apart and moving it downstairs to an area of lesser daylight but am now losing the battle with the beardy alga.

I have been playing around with it for about 8 months first adding co2 in the form of a canister with the upended jar type affair and have lately started dosing with seachem flourish. I've done a lot of reading (this forum is amazing) and know I have a low-medium light tank. I recently replaced one of my 30W bulbs with one designed more for plants (ie more red blue wavelengths) with a reflector in the hope of maximising the light.

So my question is just what can someone achieve with the standard out of the box setup and what is the best way to use this equipment. I want to achieve the amazing results other users have. I have a number of questions that could be other threads such as. How do I go about customing the hood to increase the number of bulbs, do I need to do this? Is flourish alone enough to grow many plants and combat the algae, does god really exist?

I'm hoping this will start a big debate (not the god stuff) and all us noobs gets some much needed advice (or just me).

ps ive got some pics of my tank if anyone is interested in giving me pointers on aquascaping and how to achieve the best look through plant positioning.

any advice much appreciated

 

[waterdrop]

Well, its Friday night and all the true planted tankers are not here (probably out having fun!) So all you get is me, another noob to plants but one who is interested, kinda the same as you. Sorry!

I often feel that CO2 is huge. An awful lot of what frees people up to have these beautiful planted tanks is pressurized CO2. Otherwise the struggle gets much more difficult. Clearly you -can- do great things without it, if you know what you're doing but I still think its huge.

I assume you're using Flourish because you're in the states? If you're in the UK you have access to TPN+ which would be better I believe, more balanced across a lot of nutrients. You could also move on to the full set of bottles (separate macros and trace (ie. Flourish Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Trace, (iron?)) and you could consider also trying liquid carbon (Flourish Excel) as an alternative (or adjunct perhaps?) to your DIY CO2. Your light strikes me as great and not a problem. You need really high filter flow and circulation (10x turnover filters and possibly extra powerheads for circulation, like Koralias) if you want another piece of the puzzle of fighting algae.

Just some thoughts before I have to run pick up my kid!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[chipsncheese]

Hi again
I am in the uk and on call hence no fun for me tonight so thought I'd try and get some help.

I am dosing with excel(the carbon one) and flourish and was under the impression that the fish would provide the necessary macro nutrients but am happy to try the npk+ if that's what the experts recommend and if its not also feeding the algae. I always seem to have nitrate levels in the 20ppm region and so I thought this is plenty of food for the plants

I was gonna lay off the fertiliser (particularly the iron) as I read on here that this could be feeding the BBA?

Is my light really OK? 2x30W T8's in a 55G tank from what I've been reading is low and I'm pretty much stuck with it and so I wanted to really understand what I am limited to (and everyone else who buys a tank in the hope of achieving these high end results) if I'm doomed to fail cos of the light.

Thanks for the response.

ps love the hobby despite it being a hell of a lot more work than I would've dreamed when starting out

 

[lljdma06]

I'm not doing anything this Friday night, so I'll contribute a bit.

Do you know the levels of your CO2? How are you measuring it? This is a bigger tank. CO2 levels can be high and be stable or CO2 levels can be low and be stable, but they must be stable. For larger tanks, stability usually means pressurized if you want high CO2 levels or no injected CO2 and less waterchanges.

Good, you have access to TPN+ a very nice fertiliser that does dose macros. I'm in the US and I have it shipped to me, I like it that much.

I second that your lighting is fine (Waterdrop, go setup that planted tank ). How long do you have your lights on, though?

Where did you read about the ferts? I don't remember it being in PARC, as I've removed most of the out-of-date information, but I might have missed something?

This hobby is extremely rewarding. I love planted tanks. I've been active in the hobby for over 20 years, but I have enjoyed the planted aspect of it the best. You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. Some people, IMO, make it too complicated. I like to keep things simple.

llj

 

[chipsncheese]

I've been looking for the tpn+ but have come up blank. Got any links? Who makes it?

I'm going to be relying on the flourish excel stuff from now on. I haven't been testing the co2 levels so far but will start if it's advisable. I've got a kh drop checker (which came up at 4 last week and my ph is 7 and so will use the ph/kh charts to determine the co2 levels. Does this test also include the carbon added through the excel methid or is it just dissolved c02?

Thanks

 

[lljdma06]

I've been looking for the tpn+ but have come up blank. Got any links? Who makes it?

I'm going to be relying on the flourish excel stuff from now on. I haven't been testing the co2 levels so far but will start if it's advisable. I've got a kh drop checker (which came up at 4 last week and my ph is 7 and so will use the ph/kh charts to determine the co2 levels. Does this test also include the carbon added through the excel methid or is it just dissolved c02?

Thanks

Aqua essentials sells TPN+. If you're using flourish excel then you cannot measure the CO2 with a dropchecker as it is not the same as gas CO2 (not made of the same components). The dropchecker method just works for dissolved CO2. I still think that Excel will not be cost-effective for you in the long run as your tank is too large.

llj